Mar 22 2010
University Trustees today (March 19) approved plans for a new Support Services Building on the campus of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The facility will help meet increased service requirements at the Medical Center, created in part by the recently completed Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute and soon-to-be-constructed Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital.
The two-level, 43,000-square-foot building will provide expanded space for supply and distribution facilities, maintenance shops and offices for environmental health services.
The building will be constructed between Campus and Meadow Wood drives and the intersection of Life Lion Drive on the Medical Center’s west campus. The project scope includes the realignment of all three roads to improve vehicular flow and truck access to the new loading dock, as well as the creation of forty-six additional parking spaces for staff.
The building is designed to meet U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification standards and additional steps are being taken to preserve five mature evergreen trees near the construction site.
Annually, the shipping and receiving office handles more than 121,000 inbound and outbound packages — many of them vital supplies for patient care and research activities. Over the past 20 years shipments have increased by more than 38 percent. The new Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital, along with six additional operating rooms scheduled to open over the next four months, are expected to increase the number of shipments significantly.
The current shipping and receiving area, built in 1967 as part of the original Medical Center construction, has only approximately 5,500 available square feet and six loading docks. The new support services building will provide nearly 9,400 square feet for shipping, receiving and short-term storage of materials. It also will accommodate larger shipping vehicles.
The estimated cost of the project is $19 million. Construction is scheduled to start this July with an expected completion date of November 2011.
Source: http://www.pennstatehershey.org/home/